“…in August 2003, Muqtada al-Sadr started to become a problem. Although not an imam or ayatollah, he was a young, fiery, influential cleric who had behind him the credibility of his late father, the Grand Ayatollah for whom Sadr City [the Shia district of Baghdad] was named. Muqtada had been speaking out against the coalition […]
8/15/2003
“…August [2003] became an extremely busy month for integrating thousands of coalition troops from other countries, including Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Hungary, Ukraine, Slovakia, Macedonia, Thailand, Mongolia, Nicaragua, Honduras, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, New Zealand, the Philippines, and Fiji. Others that would straggle in during the coming months included Portugal, Norway, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Singapore, […]
8/15/2003
“The CPA [Coalition Provisional Authority] claimed that it had 2,500 personnel guarding Iraq’s frontiers in August 2003–a clearly insufficient number. On the Iraq-Iran frontier, Iranian pilgrims heading for Iraq’s holy sites swamped border crossings. Arab fighters, frequently coming from Afghanistan and using clandestine routes, might easily mingle with the crowds and gain access into Iraq.” […]
8/15/2003
In August 2003, Coalition Provisional Authority leader in Iraq L. Paul Bremer said to National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice: ” ‘[Secretary of State] Colin [Powell] and I are convinced that Iraq has become the decisive theater in the war on terrorism and that if we win in Iraq, international terrorism can be defeated.’ ” [The […]
8/15/2003
“In the immediate aftermath of the invasion [of Iraq], much equipment was looted from pipelines, pumping stations, and other oil facilities. By August 2003, four months after American troops entered Baghdad, oil output had only inched up to 1.2 million barrels per day, about two-fifths of the pre-invasion level. The forecasts (or dreams) of American […]
8/14/2003
President George W. Bush thanks the military in a speech at MCAS in Mirmar, California: “We’re on the offensive against these killers; we’re going after them; we’ll raid their hiding places; and we’ll find them. The brave Americans who carry out these missions can know they will have every tool and every resource they need to […]
8/14/2003
“The Governing Council [of Iraq] was invited to take up Iraq’s seat at the UN without specifically being recognised as the government of the country. On 14 August [2003], in a 14-0 vote, with Syria abstaining, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1500 that ‘welcomed’ the formation of the Governing Council, but left the question […]
8/12/2003
According to an August 12, 2003, interview with Greg Thielmann, the State Department proliferation expert, the Bush Administration was ” ‘convinced that Saddam was developing nuclear weapons, that he was reconstituting his program, and I’m afraid that’s where they started,’ he said. ‘They were cherry-picking the information that we provided to use whatever pieces of […]
8/11/2003
On August 11, 2003, “NATO takes control of security in Kabul [Afghanistan], its first-ever operational commitment outside Europe.” – Ahmed Rashid, Taliban, Page 267 […]
8/11/2003
“The Bush administration issued its ‘100 days in Iraq’ report on 11 August 2003 and concluded that the ‘low-intensity conflict’ with insurgents–whom they still identified as Ba’athist stragglers–was all but over. ‘Most of Iraq is calm,’ it commented. ‘Only in isolated areas are there still attacks.’ “ – Abdel Bari Atwan, The Secret History of […]